Data, Collaboration, Open Government

Links

Campaign finance information is not very approachable, even when made available as open data. The laws that regulate how money can be spent around elections are important to our democracy, but sometimes it’s…

I suppose there are two possible explanations for cops having such higher rates of violence against their partners, relative to the general population.

First, it could be that people with a tendency to violent and abusive behavior disproportionately gravitate towards law enforcement work, because of something specific to their personality types.

Secondly, it could be that the conditions of the job put cops on a violent hair-trigger, which they can’t easily turn off after going home.

But either way, the results are the same, and the results are the problem. Something has to be done, beginning with figuring out ways to break down the bullshit blue brotherhood (and it is mostly, still, a “brotherhood”) that protects abusive officers, whether their abusiveness transpires at home or on the job and in the streets.

I’m a data portal skeptic. I have been for years, but I’ve gotten tripped up when trying to explain why. I’m certainly not anti open data. I’m not even anti data portal. But I worry that organizations think that setting up an open data portal is a way to make data useful, when it’s really just a…

Oakland is as its always been. There are not street lights. There are white educators making a difference. There is sunshine. There is coffee. Yet it is slow. There are drugs. There are drugs and whiskey. ”The Bay” pride permeates everything. There are non profits. There are start ups. There are…

This trend started from the bottom of Oakland and now it’s here in North Oakland and Berkeley. When Oakland Unseen asked Jamal if he got it from his old friends in East Oakland, he replied “No, new friends.” Asked if he likes living in Alameda County, he replied, “Yolo,” which we can…

When Ben McBride first started trying to understand Oakland’s violence he spent some time with kids who were deeply involved in it. This was around 2006, when Oakland had over 140 murders. McBride wasn’t living in Oakland then.

Iron Chef America contestants are known for having to creatively overcome difficult cooking challenges, such as making a dessert with eel. But few episodes have been as difficult as having to make gourmet dishes using only ingredients found in the West Oakland food desert.

If you think your cities website stinks, or if you helped build one and you know it cost way to much, there is hope! WordPress now has a crackin new service for cities to use. Fast to deploy, super stable, super secure, and Free? What? This seems like an ideal approach for all the small east bay cities like Albany, Pinole etc.